Heat Pumps
Dear Editor: Last September Pacific Refrigeration installed a heat pump in our 1,700-square-foot home. The 12 months before installation we averaged 1,307 KW electricity consumption and our utilities averaged $215 a month. In the seven months since installation our electrical consumption has averaged 652 KW and even with the bump in electrical rates our utilities have averaged $161 per month.
I would urge the city to aggressively pursue grants to help defray the cost of heat pumps even for people that are switching from oil or wood heat. So far we have found no downside to the quiet, clean heat provided by our heat pump.
Bill and Frenchie Paden, Sitka
Quilt Show
Dear Editor: Many thanks to all who made the Ocean Wave Quilters Mother’s Day Tea at the quilt show a success.
The ballots have been counted and the blue ribbons have been hung on the Viewer’s Choice quilts. They are as follows: Theme Quilt for “April Showers Bring May Flowers,” “Ode to Kermit the Frog” by Pat Schultz; Large Quilt, “Alaska Star Flower,” by Jeanette Berry; Medium Quilt, “Critters Dancing in the Moonlight,” by Diana Stevens; and Small Quilt, there was a tie between “All Tied Up” by Norma Novcaski and “Captain Ben” by Gerry vonRekowski.
The quilt show is open through 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 18, at Harrigan Centennial Hall.
Jane Seesz
Quilt Show Coordinator
Ocean Wave Quilt Guild
Sealaska Lands Bill
Dear Editor: I am a Sealaska shareholder. I grew commercially fishing with my father, Moses Johnson, who often said we wanted the land to care for us, we needed to care for the land. My mother, Amy Johnson, taught us if you feel strongly about an issue it is your obligation to speak out.
As we fished the waters of Northern Tongass in the 1980s, it was hard to ignore the large swaths of clearcuts stretching miles across the land. I was used to seeing Forest Service logging close to Sitka, but these were different. There were no wildlife corridors, the stream buffers were miniscule and the sheer scale was enormous. It was a sobering to realize I was a shareholder in the Native corporations who showed such a blatant disregard for our land.
Twenty-seven years later, I have seen Sealaska grow into a powerful force in Southeast Alaska whose board and top-level staff live a privileged life. Through the use of discretionary voting the Sealaska board insures that very few independent candidates are ever elected. There is virtually no turnover as board appointments are equivalent to a lifelong term. The average Sealaska board member earns an estimated $46,551 annually for attending meetings and also receives $888 monthly for health costs, and awarded themselves an increase of over $3,000 in the past year. The top executives continue to earn performance bonuses even as an increasing proportion of shareholder dividends are dependent on the success of other Native corporations. Tlingit culture was stratified in the past, with nobles receiving much of the wealth and prestige. It’s not hard to see parallels with the current system of entrenched Sealaska board members that are, in essence a privileged class of Tlingit royalty.
The most recent dividend for urban shareholders totaled $698, $544 of which was from ANSCA-mandated revenue sharing. Approximately $100 was a result of recent Sealaska business profits.
Sealaska tries to frame the lands bill as a Native rights issue. I have not heard any group say that these land claims should not be settled. Sealaska greed has alienated many residents of the Tongass, and even their own shareholders as they become aware of the Sealaska hierarchy and how it operates to benefit the few. Southeast voters ushered out Sealaska board members and Southeast legislators Al Kookesh and Bill Thomas in the 2012 elections. In 2012, Sealaska board and staff contributed over $7,500 to both campaigns and Sealaska Corporation paid for glossy color postcards, which were mailed, to shareholders endorsing both candidates in their districts.
It seems clear that Sealaska Corporation will do anything to preserve the status quo – lifetime terms for board members, huge performance bonuses for top staff and clearcutting the heart of our ancestral lands. It’s time for Sealaska to change the way it does business. It is time for the shareholders to insist on fairness in compensation and elections. The pending Sealaska lands legislation does not change anything. It just continues the status quo and will primarily benefit Sealaska’s elite.
Clarice Johnson, Sitka
